1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to removing fluid that drains or spills onto the floor during a surgical procedure and, more particularly to a ring-shaped suction head for use with suction sources commonly available in a surgical operating room.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
During the course of surgery, waste fluids of various types find their way onto the floor of the operating room. Specifically, during arthroscopic surgery, sterile fluid (e.g., saline solution) is supplied to the surgical site as a distension medium for the joint. The fluid, if permitted to accumulate and puddle on the floor, presents a safety hazard in that operating room personnel are likely to slip and fall. The possible contamination of the fluid presents an additional hazard. In urological surgery, such fluids may fall to the floor in an intermittent or continuous stream. If such fluids are allowed to collect on the operating room floor, they will puddle, thereby creating a safety hazard and biohazard to the operating room personnel.
A number of approaches have been disclosed in attempts to solve this problem. In particular, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,679,590 and 4,729,404 to Hergenroeder disclose a rubber mat adapted for placement beneath the surgical site in sealed engagement with the floor. The top surface of the mat is configured as multiple inverted pyramidal elements to collect fluid and direct it to a drain hole on the bottom side of the mat. The bottom side of the mat is provided with flow channels that become sealed to the floor and converge to a common suction port adapted for connection to a source of suction commonly available at a wall-mounted port in surgical operating rooms. Suction delivers the recovered fluid to a canister for collection and disposal.
Although the suction-mat arrangement described in the Hergenroeder patents adequately removes fluid falling onto the mat, it cannot drain fluid that falls to the floor beyond the mat periphery. During arthroscopic surgery, the sterile fluid delivered to the surgical site is often delivered at relatively high pressures, thereby making it difficult for surgical personnel to direct the fluid from the surgical site onto the suction mat. It is also difficult to pick up the mat and place it over a puddle once a vacuum source has been applied since the mat effectively seals itself to the floor.
There are commercially available vacuum cleaners with movable suction heads adapted to draw liquid from floors toward a waste collection chamber. These devices, however, are not suitable for surgical environments for a number of reasons. Since operating room personnel are otherwise occupied during a surgical procedure, the use of a commercial vacuum cleaner would require additional personnel thereby adding to the cost of the surgery. Moreover, commercially available vacuum cleaners have built-in vacuum sources that are extremely noisy thereby rendering communication between the surgeon and the nurses more difficult. It would be far more desirable to use a low-level suction source (e.g., on the order of 300 mm of mercury below atmospheric pressure) such as is commonly available at a wall port in operating rooms; however, suction heads employed with commercial vacuum cleaners are incapable of operating at such low pressure differentials. The stand-alone vacuum cleaner is also not a timely solution since the puddle must be allowed to form before it can be cleaned up. As noted above, the fluids that spill onto the floor during a surgical procedure are likely to be or become contaminated and hence present a biohazard. Commercially available vacuum cleaner heads for liquids are not designed to be disposable after use and, accordingly, would become contaminated and present a health hazard.
Another approach to solution of this problem has been presented in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,014,389 and 5,032,184 to Ogilvie et al which disclose a suction head for use in removing waste fluids from surgical operating room floors having a planar, low friction bottom surface adapted to readily slide along the floor in response to translational forces applied by surgery personnel using their feet. A plurality of flow channels are recessed in the bottom surface and extend radially from the mouth of a common suction port in the center of the suction head to the periphery of the suction head for connection by flexible tubing to a waste fluid collection canister. The suction head is a thin, solid, one-piece molded plate with radial reinforcing ribs made from plastic. The Ogilvie et al suction head is not particularly useful, however, for cleaning up the steady or intermittent falling stream of fluid which may be encountered in arthroscopic or urological surgery since the radial suction channels connected to the suction inlet are located on the bottom surface and open to atmosphere only at the periphery (i.e., along the outer edge) of the suction head. The suction head cannot catch the falling fluid before it splashes and puddles since the fluid simply strikes the solid or closed upper surface of the suction head from above and splashes outwardly or rolls to the periphery of the suction head. Once a puddle on the operating room floor is established, the Ogilvie et al suction head must be moved in place to remove the fluid thereby permitting the initial formation of a dangerous puddle before the suction head becomes effective. The solid top surface and radial, downward facing flow channels are, thus, not suitable for preventing contamination of the operating room floor by splashing and puddling of falling liquids.